Cesar holds hands up after dismal QPR drift further away from Premier League safety

Harry Redknapp revealed Julio Cesar came into the QPR dressing room and apologised for playing with an injury in Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Swansea.

A bigger offence would be if the goalkeeper was the only player who held his hand up.

With the possible exception of Andros Townsend, they all had something to be a little sorry about, not least the fact QPR are now seven points short of 17th place after such a flat effort.

Stinker: Julio Cesar was well below the high standards he has set this season against Swansea

Redknapp doesn’t quite think they need snookers to get out of this situation, but he does believe they need to amass 20 points from their final 12 games — having taken 17 from 26 so far — to have any chance of staying up.

He has done it before, notably when Portsmouth won six and drew two of their last 10 games in 2006 to avoid relegation.

‘I am still confident,’ said Redknapp. ‘I know it is going to be hard and I think it will go to the wire but it is not impossible.

‘It is very similar to Pompey. That was down to the last 10 games and we got out with 20-odd points from them. That is what we need here.’

Their first port of call is Dubai for a few days of warm-weather training this week, but the cold reality is that their first game back is against Manchester United and his players, to judge from Saturday, are behaving like beaten men. Or children, in the case of Adel Taarabt.

Christopher Samba, a £12.5million signing, should not be getting barged off the ball by a player with Michu’s build, as he was for Swansea’s sublime fourth goal. Taarabt should not be getting booked for booting the ball away when his team are trailing 2-0.

Redknapp believes striker Loic Remy has a chance of being fit for the United game in a fortnight but there is less hope concerning Bobby Zamora.

He came on at half-time and scored within three minutes, but Redknapp revealed the extent of the hip injury that limits him to 45-minute bursts.

The only solution is an operation but with a subsequent lay-off expected to amount to nearly eight months it is not a useful option right now.

Redknapp said: ‘He probably needs another operation. The problem means we have to stop him at half-time. If we played straight through he could probably manage 70 minutes, but stopping at half-time he seizes up and then he can’t even move.

‘When he plays he’s different — he can move, hold the ball up, he’s someone we can play up to. Without him we don’t have someone who can lead the line.’

As far as Cesar goes, Redknapp hopes Saturday was a blip. He spilled shots ahead of Swansea’s first two goals and was beaten from the acutest of angles by Pablo Hernandez for the third.

Killer: Cesar should have done better with Pablo Hernandez's shot from a tight angle